Introduction

The Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex,
formerly known as the Centre for International Human Rights Law, was
established in 1983. The Centre is a forum for multi-disciplinary
and inter-disciplinary co-operation in research, teaching and
practice, with its membership drawn from the departments of
Philosophy, Sociology and Government, as well as Law.

In 1983, the University of Essex established the first postgraduate
degree in international human rights law in the United Kingdom. And,
as the new Millennium began, the University introduced a suite of
undergraduate human rights degrees - among the first in the United
Kingdom and the world.

Following the example set by the 1993 Vienna Declaration which
emphasises the inter-relationship between all human rights
- civil, political, economic, social and cultural - the Albert Sloman Library
aims to bring all of these elements together in its collection. The
collection is hybrid in content consisting of official documents,
books, periodicals, archival materials and electronic information
sources, details of which are available from a variety of indexes,
both printed and online. This leaflet aims to provide a brief
introduction to the main tools for human rights research available
in the Library.

The Albert Sloman Library: Human Rights Site

The basic source with which human rights students
should become familiar is the Albert Sloman Library's Human Rights
web pages, which includes links sections on how to find treaties and
case-law, links to inter-governmental organisations, sections on
human rights by subject and by region and a list of human rights
related NGO's:
http://libwww.essex.ac.uk/Human_Rights/HRights.htm

This series contains the reports of the decisions of the Court in
both the English and French. The official citation of the series:
I.C.J. Reports, plus an indication of the year.

Other sources of ICJ judgments include:

ICJ website
http://www.icj-cij.org/ - contains information on the
current docket of the Court, contentious cases and advisory
opinions. The material found on the web-site is uncorrected whereas
the official reports series (above) have been checked for errors.

Official Documents

The Library receives documents from all of the main
Charter-based and Treaty-based bodies of the United Nations involved in the protection of
human rights. Examples include the Committee for the Elimination of
Racial Discrimination, the Human Rights Committee and the Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights Committee. The documents cover a wide
range of topics and purposes and include Special Rapporteurs'
reports, country reports, Non-Governmental Organisation statements
and records of meetings. It should be noted, however, that not all
UN documents are made publicly available and the Library's
collection is selective.

The documents are arranged in boxes on Floor 4 according to series
(Class-marks JC 571.U63 - JC 571.U656). The series numbering is made
up of a number of different elements, which the user might, at
first, find daunting.

The lead element signifies the part of the UN that
issued the document:

E.g.

E/ Economic and Social Council

CAT/ Committee Against Torture

This is followed by a number of sub-divisions representing either
different series of documents or different types of documents within
a series:

UNBISNet is the catalogue of all UN publications and documentation indexed by the United Nations Dag Hammarskjold Library at Geneva, it also includes many non-UN publications held in the collection of the Dag Hammarskjold Library.

A searchable, full text, database covering documents issued by the Treaty Monitoring Bodies, covers jurisprudence, annual reports, general comments, state party reports, core documents. decisions etc. Coverage is expanding and at present covers most of the 1990's onwards.

The United Nations Official
Documents System (ODS) is the electronic repository for official
documents published by the United Nations. The full text of
documents is accessible in PDF format in all the official languages
of the United Nations--Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and
Spanish. Documents are stored in two databases: UN documentation
with comprehensive coverage beginning in 1993 and selected earlier
coverage, and UN Resolutions, which includes the official records
version of resolutions of the General Assembly, Security Council,
Economic and Social Council and Trusteeship Council since 1946.

For documents from the Economic and Social Council, the Security
Council and the General Assembly see:

Council of Europe

The Council of Europe has a distinguished record in
the promotion and protection of human rights and economic, social,
legal and cultural co-operation. The human rights student will
become very familiar with the jurisprudence of the European Court of
Human Rights established under the European
Convention on Human Rights (1950).

The majority of documentation relating to, and emanating from, the
Council is shelved at JC 599.E7 on the Floor 4, although some
reports have been shelved simply according to subject matter. The
Library search (http://encore.essex.ac.uk/) should
be used for finding specific reports.

The European Human Rights Reports are a commercial version of
reports of the European Court of Human Rights and are published by
Sweet & Maxwell. The reports are available in The Library in print
or electronic format (see links above).

European Convention on Human Rights

Directorate-General for Human Rights and Legal
Affairs

The Directorate has overall responsibility for the
development and implementation of the human rights and rule of law
standards of the Council of Europe, including the promotion of
democracy through law, the operation of relevant treaties and
related monitoring mechanisms and the development and implementation
of activities in these fields. The site includes information on the
drafting of legal instruments, inter-governmental activities,
steering committees, ministerial conferences, co-operation with
member states and monitoring mechanisms.
http://www.coe.int/en/web/human-rights-rule-of-law/human-rights-directorate

Commissioner for Human Rights

The Commissioner for Human Rights is an independent
institution within the Council of Europe, mandated to promote the
awareness of and respect for human rights in 47 Council of Europe
member states. The site includes sections on country visits and
major themes such as co-operation with national human rights
structures, eradicating discrimination, human rights defenders, and
the rights of migrants.
http://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/home

Organization of American States (the Inter-American System)

The Organization of American States (OAS) officially
came into existence with the signing of the Charter in Bogota,
Columbia in 1948.
Thirty-five sovereign states of the Americas are now members of the
OAS with
the aim to achieve an order of peace and justice, to promote their
solidarity, to strengthen their collaboration, and to defend their
sovereignty, their territorial integrity, and their independence.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights was
established in 1959 and the Inter-American Court was established in
1978 when the American Convention on Human Rights (1969) entered
into force. http://www.oas.org/

African Union (formerly the Organization of African Unity)

The African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights
was established in November 1987 under the 1981 African (Banjul)
Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, signed by members of the
Organization of African Unity. On 9.9.1999, the Heads of State and
Government of the Organisation of African Unity issued a Declaration
(the Sirte Declaration) calling for the establishment of an African
Union, with a view, inter alia, to accelerating the process of
integration in the continent to enable it play its rightful role in
the global economy while addressing multifaceted social, economic
and political problems compounded as they are by certain negative
aspects of globalisation.

The Library is expanding its collection of material linked to this
organisation and has some material at class-mark JX 1393.P2 and JC
599.A4

Treaties, case-law and documents

The AU web-site contains the text of treaties,
reports, documents, decisions and declarations, speeches and
statements, news, information on member states and institutions of
the AU.
http://www.au.int/

The Organization For Security and Co-Operation in Europe

The OSCE, which was known until 1994 as the
Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE), is a
pan-European security organisation with 57 participating states
(non-European members include the United States and Central Asian
Republics). It addresses a wide range of security-related concerns,
including arms control, confidence- and security-building measures,
human rights, national minorities, democratization, policing
strategies, counter-terrorism and economic and environmental
activities.

The OSCE web site contains a document archive which includes summit
meetings, newsletters, the Permanent Council Journal, annual reports
etc.

Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs)

The Library has acquired a large collection of
booklets and reports produced by international and national
non-governmental organisations such as Article 19, Human Rights
Watch, International Commission of Jurists, Amnesty International
and State-watch. Details of these publications can be found by
searching the
Library search engine
http://encore.essex.ac.uk/

The Library has all Amnesty International
publications on microform at
JC 571.A6 including: Country Reports
from 1975 onwards and; Publications from 1962
onwards. Amnesty International reports are also
available on the web at:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library

The library also receives all Human Rights Watch publications from Oct. 2000
to current
and these publications are also available on the web at
http://www.hrw.org/publications

Books

The subject human rights embraces a wide field of
possible study, thus relevant material will be found in many
disciplines in the Library holdings, including politics (class-mark
J, Floor 4), law (class-mark K, floor 4) and philosophy (classmark
B, Floor 2). The Library
search will enable you to find this material by using the
keyword facility. For example, typing in human rights will find
all the books with human and rights anywhere in the title or subject
fields.

The main human rights collection is shelved at JC 571 and JC 599.

JC 571-JC 573

Books shelved at JC 571-JC 573 are books about the
theory of human rights or the topic in its widest sense. They are
arranged alphabetically according to author or title.

JC 599

Books shelved at JC 599 are about human rights in a
particular geographical area and the collection is sub-divided
alphabetically by country/area.

The most popular textbooks and important works are placed in the
short-loan collection on the Entrance floor.

Dag Hammarskjöld Library: UNBISnet

UNBISnet is the catalogue of UN publications and
documentation indexed by the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Library
and the Library of the UN Office at Geneva. The database also
includes non-UN publications that are held in the collection of the
Dag Hammarskjöld Library and so is an excellent index to use when
looking for books as well as UN official publications.

Periodicals/Journals

Periodicals may be found in the Library search engine by using
keywords from the periodical/journal title. Owing to the multidisciplinary
nature of the subject, relevant periodicals can be found in various
subject locations. Some of the most frequently used are:

Locating Periodical/Journal Articles

Many useful databases exist for students researching
topics for human rights. The decision regarding which to use will
depend on the nature of the subject concerned. For example, whether
it has a political, legal or philosophical theme. Some databases,
however, will cover all subject areas.

It should be noted that the Library will not hold all of the
journals referred to in the following bibliographic databases but if
an article is important to a post-graduate student than an
inter-library loan may be requested. This is an expensive service
(for the Library) and should be used selectively.

A direct link to journal article databases for Human Rights can be
found on the Library's web-site at:

HeinOnline provides comprehensive coverage from the
inception of all publications carried, from volume one, number one,
issue one onwards, to one or two years prior to the current year. As
well as including leading U.S. scholarly law journals, there are
also many non-US titles included, such as the Modern Law Review,
Cambridge Law Journal, British Yearbook of International Law, Law
Quarterly Review, and many more. The collection is growing fast,
with countries of publication covering Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, UK, Korea, Singapore, South Africa, etc.
& contains approximately 1400 journals.

Includes: International bibliography of political
science; International bibliography of social and cultural
anthropology; International bibliography of sociology and covers the
time period 1951 onwards.

Westlaw UK contains full text legislation, case law,
law reviews, texts and newspapers from across the world. Includes
Legal Journals Index - an index of legal periodicals covering the
period 1986 onwards with selected full text Sweet and Maxwell
Journals e.g. European Human Rights Law Review.

Regional Information

Finding information on particular countries and
regions of the world can be particularly difficult, and it is
important to bear in mind that the material may only be available in
the language of that particular country and is not translated.
Nevertheless there are some good resources on the web, for example, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch,
both of these organisations produce country
reports.

Other Sources

UN Treaty Bodies database - contains the periodic state reports submitted by
each country that is a party to the human rights treaties.

Nations (U.S. Library of Congress)
http://www.loc.gov/law/help/guide/nations.php - an alphabetical site by country providing links to
internet sites for the: constitution; executive; judiciary;
legislative and; other general links, for each country listed.

Further information

The Albert Sloman Library Foreign and Comparative
Law sites: Guide to Finding Foreign and Comparative Law

Theses

Ph.D., M.Phil and some LL.M. and MA dissertations
completed at the Human Rights Centre since 1984 are available for
consultation in the Library, while all new ones are added to stock
as they become available. A list can be accessed from the
Library Essex Theses
site and theses can also be searched for in the library search
engine using author or title.

Users of the Library can also find out details of theses completed
in other universities. The main database is:

Searchable index of theses and dissertations with a
strong US bias 1861-

If users would like to obtain a theses mentioned in
either of the databases, the inter-library loans section of the
library should be consulted. As this is an expensive service (for
the library) the Inter-library loans facility should be used
selectively.

ARCHIVES

Paul Sieghart Memorial Human Rights Archive.

This collection was accumulated by the late Paul
Sieghart (1927-1989), law reformer, international arbitrator,
writer, broadcaster and past Chairman of Justice (British section of
International Commission of Jurists). It contains the texts of
lectures, drafts of his books and articles, assorted photocopies,
press cuttings, and documents and booklets relating to human rights
issued by various international organisations.

Sir Vincent Evans Archive

This collection of case files, assembled by Sir
Vincent Evans, concentrates upon his period as a judge of the
European Court of Human Rights and his membership of the of the
Human Rights Committee which implements the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights.

Charter88 Archive

Charter88 is an independent organisation that campaigns for a
modern and fair democracy. The Library collection contains
information about the organisation and its aims, council papers and
minutes, executive papers and minutes, publications and press
releases, information on activities, press cuttings, audio-visual
material, correspondence, financial records and memorabilia.

Bernie Hamilton Archive

In 2007 the Library acquired the books and papers of
the renowned human rights scholar and activist Bernie Hamilton
(1945-2005) from his widow Dr. Mirilee Pearl. Bernie Hamilton, who
taught at universities in both the UK and the US, is perhaps best
known for his work with organisations such as Doctors for Human
Rights (DHR), Minority Rights Group International (MRG) and the Leo
Kuper Foundation, a body dedicated to the eradication of genocide
worldwide. The Archive comprises some 14 metres of specialist
documents, papers and reports, which are currently housed in the
Library's Special Collections, and a substantial number of books on
law, human rights and politics which have been integrated into the
Library's main collection of printed works.

Right to Health Unit Archive

In 2002, Professor Paul Hunt (Department of
Law/Human Rights Centre) was appointed to the post of United Nations
Special Rapporteur on the Right of Everyone to the Enjoyment of the
Highest Attainable Standard of Physical and Mental Health ("right to
health" or "right to the highest attainable standard of health").
This Archive contains documents on the work that Professor Hunt has
carried out in his capacity as Special Rapporteur (Aug 2002-July
2008), as well as the work of other staff at the Right to Health
Unit, Human Rights Centre, working in support of the mandate. The
collection comprises of monographs that will be added to the main
collection and a number of boxes of papers, reports and specialist
documents covering areas such as: essential medicines; undocumented
migrants/asylum seekers; right to water; right to food and housing;
environmental health; human rights and health in India; documents on
the situation in Darfur; impact assessments; indicators;
participation and accountability; guidelines and more. These
documents will be listed in due course.

Scholars wishing to consult any of the collections should contact the
Sub-Librarian (Archives & Collection Development) for details of the
terms of access.